Roselle Park

John G. Ueltzhoeffer

Super Bowl Sunday was a family holiday for the Ueltzhoeffers. After all, John Ueltzhoeffer’s first date with his wife, Uschi, was a Super Bowl XXIV party at his parents’ house in 1990. More important, the first of the couple’s three children, Sarah, was born on Super Bowl Sunday in 1994. “I’m in labor and John and the doctor are discussing the Super Bowl,” Uschi Ueltzhoeffer recalled.

Sarah came into the world at 5 a.m. “We would always tell Sarah that she came a week late, that she waited for the Super Bowl,” Ms. Ueltzhoeffer said. The couple watched the Super Bowl from the hospital.

Uschi was wide awake after giving birth, but John kept falling asleep on the couch after the all-nighter. Sarah was followed by Jacob, 4, and Rebekah, 3 — neither of them born on Super Bowl Sunday.

Every year, the Ueltzhoeffers have a Super Bowl party at their house — sometimes it coincides with Sarah’s birthday party and they celebrate with cake. Uschi Ueltzhoeffer, who is from Austria, has developed a better understanding of football and the Super Bowl since her first date with the man who would become her husband. “We’ll keep watching it,” she said. “Just for the kids, we’ll keep some traditions to remember.”